This Place Rocks Photo by Rick Kauffman.
Jeffrey Palace West of Fishtown, north of Northern Liberties (find Victor on facebook and get the details yourself)
Little Berlin
2430 Coral Street littleberlin.org
At Little Berlin, don’t expect the usual wine and hors d'oeuvre art-opening template. Instead, prepare for art that runs the gamut of traditional to highly conceptual, add a keg and often some kind of musical performance. Started as an artist collective in 2007, it has since grown into a member run co-op, producing member-curated exhibitions accompanied by live music. Some of the Philadelphia-based acts that have performed there include Bleeding Rainbow, Acid Kicks and Quiet Quilt, among many others. “Music is so accessible,” says Masha Badinter, who joined the collective in 2009. Pairing art and music helps Little Berlin members present their shows in a more communal way. “Live performances create a different context of art viewing because you're not in this stale environment,” says Badinter. “There is music, and your friends are there, and there's not as much pressure to sit there and understand the art. Its just more open and free flowing.” JUMPphilly.com
trying to dance. It works out really well for both bands.” For the more up-and-coming bands, the space provides an awesome opportunity to meet other musicians and play in a totally unpretentious, positive environment. For the better known groups, it’s a great break from the typical scene. And some big names have and will continue to make appearances at the Jeffrey, thanks to a sweet connection with the London-based collective SoFar Sounds. SoFar Sounds does what they call “viral tours” in cities all over the world, where they host bands in more intimate, alternative spaces. When they book in Philly, the Jeffrey is their go-to spot. “One night they’re here,” boasts Genarro, “and the next, they’re putting on a show in a $12 million loft apartment in South London!” The place operates off of donations, with a good chunk going to the touring bands. “We get all kinds of people here, from 19-year-old UArts chicks to 40-year-old dudes,” Genarro shares. “We see people come back to the door after finding money so they can donate. They’re having that good of a time!” - Brittany Thomas
The public has taken notice. In the five years Little Berlin has been in existence, the collective has gained a strong following and a reputation for exhibitions that have a welcoming social aspect. “We're really pushing to have more music,” says Little Berlin member Kelani Nichole. One way that Nichole says that has developed is with Little Berlin’s partnership with Bands in the Backyard (BITBY) this summer. The monthly music web series and now promotional group has put together a music festival that is being held in the recently cleared out lot next door to the Viking Mill studio building, where Little Berlin resides. The Fairground Festival is part of a Kickstarter campaign by BITBY, in which 50 percent of the funds raised will go to Little Berlin in their effort to match the $10,000 grant they were awarded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “I just love that stage,” BITBY founder and editor Kyle Costill says about the courtyard leading into Little Berlin’s gallery. The courtyard is where many of the collective’s past music shows have taken place. For Costill, he says, Little Berlin creates a special space for their audience. “For people who are into music, they’re getting
Photo by Mike Bucher.
When your house is, on any given night of the week, swarming with your bandmates, their bandmates and their bandmates’ bandmates, then the thing to do is just surrender and turn that place into an all-out underground music venue. Well, that’s the conclusion 23-year-old Victor Genarro came to, anyway. The Jeffrey Palace started out a few years before Genarro got there in 2010 as a sort of home base for a group of local film students. But for the past two years, the place has been a rotating house of musicians. And while on any given night of the week it might appear to be a house of 20-something’s like any other, on at least one night per month, these people pack all four stories of their home by hosting shows that headline bands like Philly locals The Lawsuits and Toy Soldiers, Wilmington’s The Spinto Band and London’s The Brute Chorus. “We had no neighbors and a ton of musician friends with awesome equipment,” says Genarro, who currently plays in three bands – Mountjoy, Rebecca Way and the Lesbians, and Los Ombres, all of which practice in the Jeffrey’s basement. Five people reside among the dozens of guitars, bicycles and empty bottles. “It’s a freakin’ hipster frat house,” Genarro jokes. “What can you expect?” They’re really not trying to make the place anything more than what it is. They aim to provide an alternative space where bands can play and promote one another in a totally laid-back setting, where people can come out, have a few drinks, do some dancing and wind up mingling with the bands. “We like to book our shows with really small bills, typically two bands and a DJ,” says Genarro. “We encourage short, tight, awesome sets where we say, 'Play your best eight and kill it on the floor.' Typically, we do one band at 11p.m. and the other at midnight. That way everyone’s drunk and
the added experience of seeing art,” he says. “And the people who are into art are getting the added experience of viewing bands.” Nichole agrees. “There is a happening around the art,” she says. “It gets people out who would never seek out an exhibition. It has the effect of exposing more people in the community to the artwork.” “Its kind of the nature of Little Berlin, too,” adds Nichole. “Little Berlin's kind of like a platform to be open to the community to make crazy stuff like that happen.” - Chesney Davis 29